Sir, - "Whoever you are" is the slogan for Telecom Eireann's current campaign regarding its forthcoming share issue. Judging by the 24 faces accompanying the slogan, surely it was meant to continue "as long as you are white".
This is the third campaign, to my knowledge, run by high-profile companies within Ireland which have featured photographs of healthy specimens from Irish society, all of whom happen to be white. The two previous campaigns were from RTE a couple of months ago and from Aer Lingus a couple of years ago.
The Irish Times published a letter some months ago from a correspondent pointing out that it was not possible to be registered as both Irish and black in the latest UK census. Could it be that the census form was drawn up after consultation with three of Ireland's most high profile corporations? - Yours, etc., Ian Smalley,
Seacourt, Newcastle, Co Wicklow.